12 February, 2016

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Date of Publication: 12 February, 2016

Sweden is shifting to a 6-hour workday, and this matters to you regardless if you work in Sweden or not. When a whole nation decide they can be as much as productive - and maybe more - while working less hours, well, so can you. Smart workers all over the world save time and skyrocket their careers by planning, prioritizing, and keeping busywork confined in the small time cage it belongs to. Want to join the smart work bandwagon? Here’s what to do.

Plan ahead

Reactive work is the arch-enemy of smart work, and though a certain amount of it is unavoidable we can get unconsciously trapped in other people’s schedules and priorities more often than not. Planning your work days can save you from reaction by putting your mind into an “action mindset”.

Focus on the important, not the urgent

Urgent stuff is most likely either busywork or something that is important for someone else. The tricky issue is to recognize more subtle instances of urgency.

Always remember that “important” comes from conscious planning, while “urgent” is more like a sudden feeling.

Face the hard stuff first

Once you have it all planned and your priorities are smartly set in stone, nothing could stop you, right? Wrong.

Busywork awaits in the seductive form of that “Quick Tasks” to-do list you put on your desk to boost your morale by getting things done early in the day.